Hypodermic needles are widely used throughout the medical community, and elsewhere, to administer medication and nutrients, for drawing blood samples, and for numerous other purposes. The use of such devices is not without risk, however, and while the Center for Disease Control in one study of needle stick injuries from hypodermic needles incurred by phlebotomists showed only one occurrence in over three thousand needle procedures, the consequence of a needle stick can be severe, and sometimes fatal.
As is widely known, the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, can be readily transmitted through the use of contaminated needles, and while the risk of HIV transmission from a contaminated needle stick is less than 1%, according to the Center, the results are often fatal. Further, the risk of transmission of the more common hepatitis B virus is much greater, and incidents of needle stick have also been implicated in connection with the transmission of the various herpes viruses, malaria, rocky mountain spotted fever, and tuberculosis.
While inadvertent needle sticks can also happen during the insertion or removal of needles from patients, in one study, recapping and disposal of hypodermic needles accounted for over half of such occurrences.
The problem and consequences of needle sticks have long been recognized as serious, and considerable attention has recently been directed to the problem. For example, procedures calling for elimination of the recapping of needles and deliberately breaking them to prevent their falling into the hands of illegal users, as well as similar expedients designed to reduce the risk of needle sticks have been suggested. Such procedures have frequently been either deliberately, or carelessly disregarded, however, and needle stick accidents have, unfortunately, continued at unacceptable rates.
Needle guard protective devices have also been proposed to reduce the problem, including one such device having a central hole in a finger-protecting shield that allows a needle cap to be inserted therethrough, and grasped prior to recapping. One problem associated with the device, however, arises from the fact that its use is necessarily restricted to needle caps having a diameter corresponding to the hole in the shield. Consequently, the device cannot be used with the wide variety of needle caps commonly encountered by the medical profession. Other devices have also been proposed which allow the needles attached thereto to be protectively withdrawn into the device following use. Such devices, however, fail to respond to the need to protect the standard hypodermic syringes already in use, and it may confidently be assumed that the complexity of the devices, and their cost will never allow them to entirely replace the untold numbers of standard hypodermic syringes in use today.
Furthermore, while injury prevention training is helpful in avoiding needle stick accidents, studies have indicated that education is relatively short lived, and that behavioral changes are the least effective method of preventing such accidents.
Other approaches, including cut-resistant gloves; reusable, gas-powered, needle-free injectors, and various other techniques and equipment have also been suggested, but until the discovery of the invention described herein, a simple, cost-effective way in which to avoid needle stick injuries has been unavailable.